reasoning that they were not lying, but merely transmitting what others had narrated. This is less serious when they relate it to make known that it has been narrated, rather than for it to be acted upon or relied upon.

The point here is that the reports transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and others among the early generations in al-Risāla (The Epistle) and similar works by jurists, Sufis, and hadith scholars include sound, weak, and fabricated material. A sound report is one whose truth is established by evidence; a fabricated report is one whose falsehood is established by evidence; and a weak report is one transmitted by someone whose truthfulness has not been established, either because of his poor memory or because he is under suspicion. Nevertheless, he may have been truthful in that particular report, for a sinful person may tell the truth, and someone prone to error may remember correctly. Most chapters of al-Risāla contain all three categories.

One example is the “Chapter on Contentment,” which relates that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“He has tasted the sweetness of faith who is content with Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as his Prophet.”

Muslim narrated this hadith in his Sahīh. Although the master did not mention that Muslim had narrated it, he transmitted it with a sound chain of transmission. At the beginning of this chapter, however, he cited a weak—indeed, fabricated—hadith: the lengthy hadith of Jābir, which he transmitted through al-Fadl ibn ʿĪsā al-Raqāshī, from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir. Thus, although it is the first hadith he cited in the chapter,